The reasons why I was drawn to this album are lost in the mists of time. It may have been because a friend who worked security at the NEC Arena in Birmingham asked if I wanted some tickets to see him (it can’t have been the reason as without knowing more about him than “Jack And Diane” I probably would have said no)…anyways I accepted a fistful of tickets and couldn’t give them away. So I went on my own, bought a slab of those horrible plastic bottles of lager they served at the NEC and set myself up dead centre on the very back bleacher of seats. 2 hours later my mind was suitably blown, the place was barely half full, there was no-one sitting within 5 rows of me and it’s still, to this day, one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen.

Well if that was the reason I bought “Scarecrow” then good, cos it’s a fantastic album, one of the first I owned that could be described as Americana. Yes it has hit singles on it, “R-O-C-K In The USA”, “Lonely Ol' Night" and “Small Town”, but elsewhere it has a similar feel to Springsteen’s “Nebraska” about it. It’s not as low-fi and stark as “Nebraska” but the songs about the trials and troubles of ordinary Americans, this time based more on farming communities than Springsteen’s songs of bars, cars and cops, feels familiar.

It starts right from the off in “Rain On The Scarecrow”

“The crops we grew last summer weren't enough to pay the loans 

Couldn't buy the seed to plant this spring and the Farmers Bank foreclosed 

Called my old friend Schepman up to auction off the land 

He said “John its just my job and I hope you understand” “

The video for the song begins with an interview with three farmers telling of their struggles. Feels like stories we’ve heard before on Drive-By Trucker and Jason Isbell records. Single “Small Town” describes where the people that haunt these songs come from and how they think. “The Face Of The Nation” bemoans the changing times, “You’ve Got To Stand For Something” is an exhortation to do just that, no suggestion on what just believe in something, preferably yourself.

There are lighter moments, Mellencamp and his band had spent some weeks in rehearsal before entering the studio playing through a list of a hundred rock and roll songs from the 1960s which led to the single “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60's Rock)” and “Between A Laugh And A Tear” is a nice duet with Rickie Lee Jones.

“Scarecrow” was released in 1985, just a year after Springsteen’s “Born In The USA”, both at the height of Reagan-ism. Both albums are recounting the stories of ordinary Americans and how they were coping in that world, for many, not well.

Rain On The Scarecrow - https://youtu.be/joNzRzZhR2Y?si=A_h92A7QnvO7X30W

A short one today...

“Terribly Sorry Bob” is a compilation of Mega City Four’s early singles. Side One covers the three that I’d bought while waiting on the release of “Tranzphobia” which is what really attracted me to this as I no longer own the 7”s. As with “Tranzphobia” there will be no surgical breakdown of what’s here. Click on the link below, if you don’t like it move on, but know that I find it hard to understand anyone who can’t find complete satisfaction in the Mega City Four.

Distant Relatives - https://youtu.be/24B0EClRAT0?si=XTVT3UjMsn2CGP2n

I first encountered the Mega City Four when my band, The Libertines (ya see Doherty and his bunch of musical junkies didn’t have an original name either !), were booked to open for them at The Dial in Derby in early 1989. I was positively disposed toward them even before I heard them due to my being a big 2000AD/Judge Dread fan and the connection with their name (for those not in the know Judge Dread polices Mega City One). But that night at The Dial I think they convinced me they might just be the greatest band on the planet at that very moment. Their amalgamation of Punk-rush and bloody fantastic, melodious songs had me hooked straight away.

Their debut album, “Tranzphobia” was released just 3 months after that first encounter. I’d hoovered up their first 3 singles in the interim and this album proved to be an extension of those and the handful of gigs we did with them. I’m not gonna do some microscopic breakdown, none of this is complicated, you write great songs and you play them with some fire and skill. Walls of buzzsaw guitars and thumping drums back up Wiz’s high pitched vocals, and it works. The so called Pop-Punk bands of the US all sound like they very much over-familiarised themselves with the Mega’s before setting off on their way.

I got to see them quite a few times as the Mega’s did some gigs opening for The Wonder Stuff and a few years ago I reconnected with bass player Gerry Bryant when he turned up as the bands driver on a TWS tour. Those that are fans are fanatical about the Mega’s, still. If you’re yet to experience them just click this link.

Paper Tiger - https://youtu.be/EAKCL3vrAAg?si=0d9yusvmUM0LPVIf